From a distance, it’s clear Tracey Crabtree is a passionate Ottawa Senators and National Hockey League fan.

As she strolled through the busy Bayshore Shopping Centre with her friend Tanya Bruce at lunchtime Wednesday, she was sporting a Senators baseball cap. A closer look revealed a Senators tattoo on her left leg. Crabtree regularly helps out with charity fundraising during games at Scotiabank Place. Her aunt is a season-ticket holder.

So surely, all that Senators and NHL merchandise readily available for Christmas at drastically reduced prices at the Sports Experts outlet — 50 per cent off, 60 per cent off, 70 per cent off — was calling her name, right?

Guess again.

“I’m not buying anything Senators-related until hockey is back,” Crabtree said, claiming owners and players should share the blame for the empty arenas and overloaded store shelves. “I don’t even look at (the merchandise).”

She’s hardly alone in that opinion. In one sense, it’s entirely appropriate that the NHL and the players’ association tried to take Wednesday’s lockout talks underground, away from the media. As far as discount holiday shoppers are concerned, the NHL is pretty much out of sight, out of mind. The general sentiment is that Gary Bettman and Don Fehr are the grinches who stole hockey.

“I’m a fairly avid hockey fan and a real big Senators fan and for sure it has an impact on whether I buy something,” said John Robeson, after he walked in and out of the Sports Experts store empty-handed. “I looked at the jackets and the sweaters and the prices are really good. But the first thing I thought about was the lockout.”

Then there was Andrew Warner, a self-described “diehard fan,” who bypassed the Senators stuff in favour of the Team Canada shirts and sweaters. Canada is one of the favourites at the post-Christmas world junior tournament in Ufa, Russia.

If there was no lockout, “I might have bought something,” he said. “But Team Canada is going to play Dec. 26. It’s better hockey than some of the NHL games. You know, I really think the NHL is going to have a hard time coming back from this.”

For now, though, the retailers are among those paying the price for the lockout, with much of the hockey-related merchandise remaining on the shelves through the shopping season. In some respects, hockey’s loss is football’s gain. Those who might have previously purchased Jason Spezza or Erik Karlsson sweaters are now turning their attention to NFL stars such as Peyton Manning or Tom Brady.

Even though this is supposedly Hockey Country, NFL sweaters are outselling NHL sweaters 10-1, according to Spencer Wegener, a manager at the Bayshore Sports Experts location.

“It’s substantial, I bet we’re probably not even at half of what (we sold) last year,” Wegener said. “Not one (NHL) thing is the regular price. A lot of people are pissed off at the players and the owners and they’re doing the boycott thing. They even say they’re not going to buy anything next year.”

That’s a familiar refrain among sports merchandise retailers throughout the city.

“Sales have dropped right off the cliff,” said Peter Jennings, co-owner of E I Sports and Collectibles in the Billings Bridge Mall. Baseball caps that regularly sell for $30 are now $15, but they still look ugly to fans at any price.

“If not for the NFL, I don’t know what we would do,” he said. “But how can you blame anybody? I’m one of the biggest fans going. I love watching hockey. As a fan, I’m upset.”

Despite discounts of 40 per cent, NHL-related sales at the Sport Chek store in the St. Laurent Shopping Centre are down “about 60 per cent,” according to manager Don Rushlow.

The retailers acknowledge that the sales of some smaller scale, “grab and go” trinkets, stocking stuffer items such as cups and pens, have picked up as Christmas closes in.

Lockout or not, some shoppers still see the NHL as the way to go. Tanya Boivin left the Bayshore Sports Experts on Wednesday with a bag full of hockey goodies for her husband, brother and three-year-old son. “My husband is completely into hockey,” she said. “He was up all night, watching Bettman’s speech (last Thursday). My husband still has hope.”

Most, though, are in the same camp as Warner, wondering whether the NHL has blown it by kissing away three months of the season in what is generally perceived as nothing more than a fight about greed. “The prices for some stuff is ridiculous,” he said. “A $25 hat is selling for $7.99.”

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